


Karât u Rarât

by lferion



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe of an Alternate Universe, Drabble, Friendship, Khazâd November, M/M, Secrets, Triple Drabble, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 05:18:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9864602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lferion/pseuds/lferion
Summary: Dwalin is trusted. That matters to him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks go to Zana & Morgynleri for encouragement & sanity-checking. Title means 'Trust and Secrets'. Part of Iron & Light, found [here](http://archiveofourown.org/series/68949).
> 
> Originally posted here for Day 21 of Khazâd November.

* * *

Dwalin guarded Thorin’s rest, as best he was able. There was little enough he could do otherwise. For nearly as long as he had known him — more than half Dwalin's life now, since the battle at the gates of Khazad-dum that had changed and shaped all of their lives — Thorin had slept badly: easily startled awake, subject to dark dreams, never relaxed under anything but stone, though few would know any of that, "Thorin II Oakenshield, king in exile" being all most people saw. The shield of oak and honor, not the Dwarf beneath, who was honorable, but not actually oaken.

Dwalin had his own nightmares, but Thorin never pried, willing to listen, to wake a comrade in distress with voice or hand (or the occasional boot — Dwalin had totally deserved it too, and they still laughed about it, a quarter-century later), but comfortable with silence. Respectful of privacy. Dwalin had told him things he'd told few others: things he'd seen and done in battle, the fragility of Men's lives, the stories behind some of the ink he bore. He wished he could tell Thorin his greatest secret (secrets, for there were times he couldn't tell which was the greater: the wrongness of his body, or the other thing), but he didn't dare, could not face the possibility of losing what he had. 

He knew there were things Thorin did not speak of to him, though he understood something of a few of them, without necessarily knowing why. It was enough that Thorin trusted him, relied on him, took his fealty seriously, given and received. Listened to him. Could occasionally be gotten to share a jest. It wasn't like Thorin would let just anybody ward his sleep. His life in Dwalin's hands. That trust (that love) mattered more than anything.


End file.
